Black Tales for White Children

by C. H. Stigand; Nancy Yulee Stigand

Then the shark said to him, "I am afraid to go any nearer the shore, for if the sons of men see me they will kill me."

So he called a Tewa fish and asked him to take the chief the remaining distance to the shore. But the Tewa fish said to him, "You are one of the sons of men, and you are our enemies, for it is you who kill and eat us."

So the man made a compact with the Tewa fish, that if he carried him safely to the shore he would give out an order to the fishermen making it unlawful to kill Tewa fish.

So the Tewa agreed, and he climbed on to his back and was brought safely to the shore.

When he arrived he got off the Tewa's back and, taking his two little baskets, came to his brother's house.

Now there was no more wealth left to him, for all his property he had given that woman.

He said to himself, "Let me try now and see if these dates will do the same to others as they did to me."

So he took the basket of unripe dates and gave one to every one in the house, and behold, they all grew tusks of great size.

All of them were then very angry with him, but he took the second basket, and when each had eaten one of the dates their tusks dropped off.

Then he called a slave of the household and gave him dates of the first basket and told him, "Go and hawk these dates in the town, but you must only sell to such and such a person," and he told him the name of the woman whom he had wished to marry, and who had all his property.